Three disciplined over Mel Gibson's 2006 arrest

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Three sheriff's department
employees, including two supervisors, were disciplined for
their handling of last year's drunken-driving arrest of
actor-director Mel Gibson, the head of a civilian oversight
panel said on Friday.

An independent review of the case, which sparked a furor
when Gibson's anti-Semitic remarks to arresting officers were
revealed, concluded that actions by the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department employees violated agency policy.

According to the report, Gibson was permitted to leave the
sheriff's station in Malibu without providing a palm print or
signing a statement promising to appear in court as required. A
sheriff's sergeant also gave Gibson a ride to a tow yard to
retrieve his car without clearing with it station commanders.

While constituting relatively "minor" infractions of
department policy, those actions "create a perception of
preferential treatment," said Michael Gennaco, who heads the
Office of Independent Review.

He said two sergeants received formal reprimands and a
department jailer was suspended for two days without pay.

"The general public expects equal treatment under the law,
and when there's a perception that's not what is going on,
that's a problem," he said.

"Thirty years ago, if a celebrity was detained or stopped,
most likely that celebrity would have been driven home and
never even charged," he told Reuters. "So I think law
enforcement has come a long way."

The report was less critical of another aspect of how
Gibson's case was handled -- the way the agency first reported
his July 2006 arrest to the media.
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